ROME: Al-Qaeda cells based in Italy had planned to attack the Vatican, a US consulate in the country and a church in Venice prior to September 11, the leading Italian daily Corriere della Sera has reported.

Quoting Rome police working for the anti-terrorist force DIGOS, the paper said that al-Qaeda cells had been ordered to call off the attacks "two months before September 11".

"At that time, three terror attacks were being planned," the paper added.

Italian police had learned of the plans after receiving information from a mole who had infiltrated an al-Qaeda network based in London.

In a report dated May 24, the police said the plan, still in its initial stages, was being set up to attack "a US target in Europe or the Vatican".

According to the paper, the Italian cell did not at the time possess the arms required for the operation which had been "probably ordered by Osama bin Laden".

Police suspect that Khalifa Mohamed Moussa Ahmed from an Algerian Islamist organisation to be one of the heads of the Rome-based cells.

The man, also known as "Mohamed the Libyan", had been spotted by police in a Venice church in May 2001 "where he had taken a number of photographs".

The church is regularly frequented by US citizens, the paper said.

However, Mohamed preferred to attack the Vatican where he would have succeeded "in killing many people", police said.

They had therefore arrested two suspects at Saint Peter's Square, Samir Lanani, a 28-year-old Algerian and Rasool Goulam Chisti, 58, from Pakistan, the paper reported.

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